[1] Tama was born in Kinokawa, Wakayama, and was raised with a group of stray cats that used to live close to Kishi Station.

[7] Tama's original gold name tag was stolen by a visitor on October 10, 2007, but a replica was quickly made to replace it.

[9] Tama is often cited as part of a phenomenon known in Japan as "Nekonomics" (ネコノミクス, nekonomikusu, lit., "catonomics", "cat economics"), a play off the term Abenomics.

The year-end bonus was modified to a special cat toy and a celebratory slice of crab, which Tama was fed by the company president.

[11] On January 5, 2008, Tama was promoted to "super station master" (a title equivalent to Superintendent rank) in a ceremony attended by the president of the company, the mayor, and approximately 300 spectators.

[14] In January 2010, railway officials promoted Tama to the post of "Operating Officer" in recognition of her contribution to expanding the customer base.

In August 2010, in honor of Tama's third year as stationmaster, the station building at Kishi was rebuilt with a new structure resembling a cat's face.

[17] On January 5, 2013, at the ceremony celebrating her sixth year as stationmaster, Tama was elevated to Honorary President of Wakayama Electric Rail for life.

[citation needed] Tama died on June 22, 2015, at the age of 16, of apparent heart failure at an animal hospital in Wakayama Prefecture.

After the funeral, Wakayama Electric Railway President Mitsunobu Kojima and other executives went to the area by Kishi River where Tama was born and selected stones to build her memorial.

Every year on June 23, the anniversary of Tama's death, her successors Nitama and Yontama are carried to her shrine and offerings are presented by the company president on their behalf.

Tama appeared in a documentary about cats titled La Voie du chat in French and Katzenlektionen in German by Italian filmmaker Myriam Tonelotto, broadcast on European TV channel ARTE in April 2009.

In chapter 58 of the Japanese manga Noragami, published a few months after her death and deification, the authors honored Tama with the "rookie of the year award" as a new goddess of fortune in an in-universe ranking of the most popular Shinto deities.